The present invention is directed to snowboard boots and, more particularly, to a snowboard boot capable of longitudinal and/or lateral inclination.
The snowboarding World Cup is a competition based on points, and it is divided into Alpine competition (comprising slalom and downhill runs) and freestyle competition (comprising half-pipe and mogul runs). The boots used in Alpine competition are designed such that the attitude of the legs of the user are fixed with respect to the snowboard. However, ankle flexibility in both the longitudinal and lateral direction is required in the half-pipe competition.
Copending application Ser. No. 08/736,233 entitled "Snowboard Boot" filed on Oct. 23, 1996 and incorporated herein by reference discloses various snowboard boots having longitudinal and lateral flexibility. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, a snowboard boot disclosed in that application is made up of a sole component 1, a toe component 2, a heel component 3, and a leg component 4. The leg component is generally formed in a roughly cylindrical shape. The characteristic anklebone position is indicated by point K. "Anklebone" refers to the protruding portion that projects from the left and right sides of the ankle. In this specification, this left and right direction is called the lateral direction. The lateral direction that passes through the anklebone is called the direction of the anklebone axis. The ankle rotates with this anklebone axis as its approximate center. The anklebone axis will hereinafter be referred to as the K axis. Of the rotation around this K axis, that is, the rotation of the leg component 4 with respect to the sole 1, the rotation in the direction in which the top of the leg component 4 goes toward the toe component 2 is called forward inclination. In contrast, the rotational movement of the leg component with respect to the boot sole around the longitudinal axis that links the heel component and the toe component) in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the K axis is called swinging.
In the disclosed embodiment, the boot sole 1 is equipped with a liner (not shown) molded from a hard resin. The stiff heel portion 5 (called a heel cup) makes up a portion of the heel component 3, either integrally with or independently from the liner. The stiff heel portion 5 shares the curved shape of the heel component 3. The stiff heel portion 5 can be molded as a riser portion that rises continuously to the portion extending over the boot sole 1, and it can also be provided independently of a so-called heel cup. The stiff heel portion 5 is molded such that it is exposed on the outside of the boot, but can also be molded such that it is on the inside and cannot be seen. A stiff leg portion 6 forms part of the leg component 4 at the top of the stiff heel portion 5, which is part of the heel cup.
A stiff heel overlap portion 7 is coupled to the stiff heel portion 5 via rivets 7a, and a stiff leg overlap portion 8 is coupled to the stiff leg portion 6 via rivets 8a. The stiff heel overlap portion 7 overlaps the stiff leg overlap portion 8 in the longitudinal direction. The stiff heel overlap portion 7 and the stiff leg overlap portion 8 are fixed such that they can move in the vertical direction relative to each other, and such that they can rotate relative to each other around the longitudinal direction a. The stiff heel overlap portion 7 and the stiff leg overlap portion 8 are rotatably fixed by the pivot pin 9.
A cover portion is formed by an accordion-shaped portion 15 of a flexible material that wraps around the back of the Achilles tendon, and a cut-out 16 is formed over the accordion-shaped portion 15. As a result, flexible portion 15 and cut-out 16 promote lateral and longitudinal flexing of leg component 4 relative to heel component 3. The present invention is directed to an improvement in the construction of cut-out 16 and flexible material 15 to accommodate stresses placed on the boot during use.